England, and went to Oxf. After holding various other preferments he became rector of the rich living of Stanhope, Bishop of Bristol (1738), and Bishop of Durham (1750), and was said to have refused the Primacy. In 1726 he pub. Fifteen Sermons, and in 1736 The Analogy of Religion. These two books are among the most powerful and original contributions to ethics and theology which have ever been made. They depend for their effect entirely upon the force of their reasoning, for they have no graces of style. B. was an excellent man, and a diligent and conscientious churchman. Though indifferent to general literature, he had some taste in the fine arts, especially architecture. B.'s works were ed. by W.E. Gladstone (2 vols. 1896), and there are Lives by Bishop W. Fitzgerald, Spooner (1902), and others, see also History of English Thought in 18th Century, by Leslie Stephen.
Butler, Samuel (1612-1680).—Satirist, was the s. of a Worcestershire farmer. In early youth he was page to the Countess of Kent, and thereafter clerk to various Puritan justices, some of whom are believed to have suggested characters in Hudibras. After the Restoration he became Sec. to the Lord Pres. of Wales, and about the same time m. a Mrs. Herbert, a widow with a jointure, which, however, was lost. In 1663 the first part of Hudibras was pub., and the other two in 1664 and 1668 respectively. This work, which is to a certain extent modelled on Don Quixote, stands at the head of the satirical literature of England, and for wit and compressed thought has few rivals in any language. It is directed against the Puritans, and while it holds up to ridicule the extravagancies into which many of the party ran, it entirely fails to do justice to their virtues and their services to liberty, civil and religious. Many of its brilliant couplets have passed into the proverbial commonplaces of the language, and few who use them have any idea of their source. Butler, notwithstanding the popularity of his work, was neglected by the Court, and d. in poverty.
Ed. of B.'s works have been issued by Bell (3 vols., 1813), and Johnson (2 vols., 1893).
Butler, Samuel (1825-1902).—Miscellaneous writer, ed. at Shrewsbury and Camb., wrote two satirical books, Erewhon (nowhere) (1872), and Erewhon Revisited (1901). He translated the Iliad and Odyssey in prose, and mooted the theory that the latter was written by a woman. Other works were The Fair Haven, Life and Habit, The Way of all Flesh (a novel) (1903), etc., and some sonnets. He also wrote on the Sonnets of Shakespeare.
Byron, George Gordon, 6th Lord Byron (1788-1824).—Poet, was b. in London, the s. of Captain John B. and of Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight, Aberdeenshire, his second wife, whom he m. for her money and, after squandering it, deserted. He was also the grand-nephew of the 5th, known as the "wicked" Lord B. From his birth he suffered from a malformation of the feet, causing a slight lameness, which was a cause of lifelong misery to him, aggravated by the knowledge that with proper care it might have been cured. After the departure of his f. his mother went to Aberdeen, where she lived on a small salvage from her fortune. She was a
